Form,fill and seal packaging machine



Dec. 2, 1969 o. R. TITCHE'INAL 3,481,110

FORM, FILL AND SEAL PACKAGING MACHINE Filed July 19 66 2 Sheets-$heet 1 I NVEN TOR. Oliver R. 77'7c/7ena/ 14 7'7'0RNE Y Dec. ,1969 o. R. TITCHENAL 3,481,110

'FORM, FILL AND SEAL PACKAGING MACHINE Filed July 5, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

20 O/iver R. Tifdzen 0/ F4 7 w A HTTORNY United States Patent 3,481,110 FORM, FILL AND SEAL PACKAGING MACHINE Oliver R. Titchenal, 515 Townsend St., Midland, Mich. 48640 Filed July 5, 1966, Ser. No. 562,585 Int. Cl. B65b 9/14, 41/14, 43/50 US. Cl. 53183 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A packaging machine utilizing a tubular plastic film material whereby the tubular material is formed into a This invention relates to a packaging machine utilizing a tubular plastic film material, whereby the tubular material is formed into a bag and the bag is filled and sealed. More particularly, the preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the invention includes a movable floating former to open the tubular material in a horizontal disposition, a cutting knife for separating a bag length of such tubular material from its feed stock, a conically-shaped indexing table for sealing one end of the bag and moving it from the horizontal into a vertical position for gravity filling,

and a mechanism for sealing the filled bags and conveying them away from the machine.

The present invention has many advantages. It places the feed stock of tubular material in position for easy ac- .cess for changing and maintenance. The machine takes relatively little head room and floor space and it can be placed under existing filling installations. The bag which is formed is accessible during the filling operation in case a reject appears. The rotating and moving parts of the machine are out of the way of the operator, and remote from the filling station so as to avoid dust contamination. The direct forming of bags from tubular roll stock, preferably pre-printed, and filling these bags on the same machine permits advantageous plastic materials to be price competitive with present paper packaging materials. The machine is capable of forming heavy duty gusseted bags as well as those of thinner gauge and simpler construction.

In accordance with the above stated advantages the p present invention can be seen in some detail by viewing the attached drawings, corresponding parts bearing the same reference characters wherein:

FIGURE 1 is an isometric view of a machine illustrating a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view thereof; FIGURE 3 is an enlarged side elevational view of the movable floating former and clamping head of the machine, with portions thereof broken away;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged end elevational view of the former looking in the direction of line 44 of FIGURE3;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged side elevational view like that of FIGURE 3 only with the former and head engaged, with portions thereof broken away;

FIGURE6 is an enlarged side elevational view of a bag length of feed stock held by the clamping head, with portions thereof broken away;

FIGURE 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 77 of FIGURE 2; and

3,481,110 Patented Dec. 2, 1969 FIGURE 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 88 of FIGURE 2.

Referring generally to FIGURE 1, which illustrates the preferred embodiment of this invention, machine 10 includes a frame 12 which supports a roll 14 of tubular film stock, a movable assembly 16, a knife 18, a rotary indexing table or drum 20, the drum including a bag clamping head 68 and a bag end sealing means. Cooperating with table 20 is a hopper 26 which permits a measured quantity of product to exit through a funnel or head 28 into a bag 30, each bag 30 being placed on conveyor 86 and being sealed across its top by a mechanism 34.

Tubular film stock or material 36, seen also as bag length 30, can be of thick or thin gauge film, and be formed into bags of large or small size depending on the particular use desired. For example, shipping bags which can be large enough to hold fifty or more pounds of cement can be two feet or more in length and be formed of a poly ethylene film, such as Polyfilm sold by The Dow Chemical Company, of a thickness of 6 mils or more. Light weight bags for food products, such as peanuts, for example, might be only 3 or 4 inches in length and be of a relatively thin gauge /2 mil) polyethylene film. Of course, other materials which are heat scalable and have the proper barrier properties for the product to be contained therein, such as certain paper/plastic, metal/plastic, or plastic/ plastic film laminates, or film sheeting formed of Saran, polypropylene, polystyrene, etc., can likewise be used.

Frame 12 employs a plurality of rollers 14, 40 and 42, the latter being a weighted pivoted roller. The feed stock of tubular material 36 travels about the roller 40 and weighted roller 42, and is kept taut thereby until its entrance between the nip of a pair of guide rollers 44.

In horizontal alignment with the nip of guide rollers 44 is located the movable assembly 16, including a floating former or internal member 52 which is preferably oval in shape, as shown in FIGURE 4, and is held by a horizontal extension 46 of the frame 12 through a pair of rods 48 which travel back and forth horizontally through a sleeve 50 formed with the foremost extent of the upper extension 46. Assembly 16 includes floating former 52 having a nose 54 facing into the nip between the rollers 44, and at its opposite foremost end a pair of resiliently outwardly biased arms 56 separated from one another of their opposite lateral ends, as indicated by slots 47. Intermediate between the nose 54 and arms 56- are gripping rollers 58 which rest and/or bear against a neck portion 60 of the internal member or floating former 52 to carry the same. The travel of the assembly 16 is substantially horizontal from the position a to the position b and back again, shown in FIGURE 2. The mechanism for moving the rods 48 back and forth can be conventional and is not illustrated.

Adjacent the end of the assembly 16 when it is located in its rearmost position a, is the knife 18, shown at its lowermost position. Knife 18 includes blade 62 adapted to sever the tubular material 36 against the receiver 64. Attached to the delivery mechanism of the knife 18 so that it travels upwardly and downwardly therewith, which operation can be achieved by hydraulic or other conventional means not shown, is elongated guide 66 which is adapted to hold the end of a bag length 30 of tubular material down when and after it is severed by the blade 62 therefrom.

Rotary drum 20 is shown to be in the form of a truncated cone and is located so that the widest part or base 63 of the cone is at an angle of about 45 with respect to the horizontal. It is located adjacent to and is cooperable with frame 12. The drum 20 carries a plurality of clamping heads 68, each of which actually is a filling spout with a bag clamp. When disposed at the top of the drum 20, each clamping head 68 is in a horizontal disposition directly facing movable assembly 16. The receiving end 83 of the clamping head 68 faces the arms 56 and is generally in the form of an oval cylinder containing fingers 70 adapted to mesh with corresponding fingers 70 of the arms 56, the intermeshing of which is to be described in more detail hereinafter with respect to FIGURES 3 to 5. Carried by the heads 68 are clamps 72 adapted to open and close, shown in FIGURE 2 in a closed position. Clamps 72 can be operated by a link mechanism or by any other conventional means. Four such heads 68 are shown located at ninety degree positions about the indexing table 20 and the rotation of the table 20 indexes each one of the heads 68 ninety degrees from station to station.

The substantially 45 angular base 63 forming the wider part of the drum 20 has a peripheral rim 74 best seen in FIGURE 7. On top of and mating with the rim 74 is a rotating endless belt 76 which travels about rollers 78 spaced apart above rim 74. Extending part-way beneath and generally parallel with the rim 74 and belt 76 is a channel-shaped heating element 80, the channel 81 thereof facing the rim 74. A short distance after the heating element 80 ends, a pair of cooling belts 82 begin and extend the rest of the distance beneath the belt 76, which is most clearly seen in FIGURES 2 and 7.

Hopper 26, of the dump receiving type, preferably includes an extension 28 which can be of such a length that it just meets with the filling spout end 84 of the head 68 or can have a mechanism, not shown, for vertical reciprocation such that it can extend into the opening at the end 84 and then retract therefrom. This is particularly advantageous if certain types of material, such as those having a powdery character like cement, flour, fertilizer etc., are packaged so as to minimize the dust problem.

Heat sealing mechanism 34 for sealing the tops of the bags after they are filled can comprise a pair of heated endless belts 88 and cooling endless belts 89 suspended from and beneath the frame 90. These belts can travel about spindles 92 rotatably operated by conventional means not shown.

In the operation of the apparatus 10, tubular material 36 travels from roller 14 around rollers 40 and 42, being kept taut thereby, through guide rollers 44 and over the movable floating former 52. The nose 54 of the former 52 in its rearmost position, as shown in FIGURE 2, is located inside of the tubular material 36 and serves to open it into an oval configuration, as illustrated. The tubular material is located about the nose 54, neck 60 and the arms 56 of the former and is held to the former by means of rollers 58 engaging the tubular material with the neck 60. Such a disposition of the tubular material is illustrated in more detail in FIGURE 3. Once the tubular material is secured to the movable floating former by the rollers 58 the assembly 16 travels from position a to position b bringing the tubular material, through the intermeshing of the cooperating fingers 70, over the receiving end 83 of a head 68, as shown in detail in FIGURE 5. The length of travel from a to b corresponds with a bag length 30 of tubular material.

When a bag length 30 is disposed over the head 68 the clamps 62 close over the edge of the film forming the end of the bag length carried over receiving end 83 and secure it to the head 68. Once this piece of film is so secured, the movable floating former retreats to its rearmost position, i.e., the position shown in FIGURE 2. Thus, a bag length 30 of material 36 is secured at a head 68 and the movable former 52 is completely withdrawn therefrom. At this stage, knife 62 and guide 66 engage the top of the bag length 30 and push it downwardly until this bag length is severed. The guide 66 holds the severed bottom end of the bag in this position until a pusher not shown but of a conventional construction, attached to drum 20 pushes the free end of the bag under the belt 76 and over the rim 74 as the head 68 holding the foremost end of the bag begins its travel from its horizontal station X counterclockwise to its next station 90 away. During this period of travel the open bottom end 92 of bag length 30 travels under belt 76, and through channel 81 of heating element 80. Heating element is designed to provide enough heat during this stage to substantially soften or actually melt the end 92 of the particular film material forming bag length 30 before the end of the bag length passes therefrom. As the head 68 travels from station Y to bottommost station Z the end 92 passes between the pair of cooling belts 82. When the two belts 82 pick up the end 92 a bead is formed across the bottom of the bag 30 sufficient to form a closed seal thereacross so that the contents dispensed by a hopper 28 at the station Z can be loaded into bag 30, now in a vertical disposition, without breaking the seal. The bag 30 when at station Z is resting on conveyor 86. It is filled through the extension 28 and, once filled, the open top end 94 of bag 30 is guided, by human hand or otherwise, between the belts 88 of mechanism 34. While traveling on conveyor 86 the belts 88 serve to soften and press together the opposite sides of the film at the top end 94 of the bag 30'. Cooling belts 89 then pick up top end 94 and by pressure secure the seal thereacross.

If it may be found unnecessary in the making of certain simple bags to employ the bottom end sealing device above described (which is particularly adapted to handle heavy duty and/or gusseted bags), the heating element 92 and cooling belts 82 could be eliminated, the knife 18 being converted into an impulse heat sealer instead. Other modifications of the present invention, as for example supplying tubular material from a box in which it is folded rather than from a roll, originally supplying film sheet material and forming it with a tubular configuration, providing pre-perforated film material which is readily separated into bag lengths without requiring a knife, changing the shape of the former and clamping heads from an oval to accommodate different shaped bags, employing more than one drum to increase production rates, automating the transfer of the filled bag to top sealing mechanism, turning over or capping the top end of the bag with a stitched or adhesively attached material, etc., illustrate that it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Accordingly, what is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for forming and filling bags comprising means for feeding substantially lay flat thermoplastic tubular material into a substantially horizontal disposition, an internal member adapted for insertion into said tubular material, means for securing said tubular material to said internal member and for guiding said internal member in a generally horizontal direction a distance substantially equal to a bag length of said tubular material, a plurality of securing elements located adjacent said internal member when said internal member is in its foremost position, said securing elements being rotatable from a horizontal to a vertical disposition, means for transferring said bag length from said internal member to one of said securing elements when the latter is horizontally disposed and holding the foremost end of the tubular material therewith, means for separating a bag length of said tubular material after said internal member returns to its rearmost position and while the aforesaid foremost end thereof is held to said securing element, means for filling said bag length after said securing element has carried said bag length to a vertical position, and means for sealing at least the bottom end of said bag length before it is filled.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said internal member includes a nose at its rearmost end for opening said tubular material, resilient arms at its foremost end, and wherein said securing means is comprised of a neck located between said nose and arms and closing means adapted to close on said neck to secure a section of said tubular material thereto.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said securing elements comprise clamping heads of an oval cylindrical configuration secured to a drum such that upon rotation of said drum each said head changes from a horizontal to a vertical disposition and back again, said head when in a horizontal disposition having its rearmost end in alignment with the foremost end of said former.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said rearmost end of said head and the foremost end of said former include fingers adapted to intermesh with one another, and clamping means attached to said head for closing upon the rearmost end thereof.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said drum is a truncated cone, the widest base thereof being disposed at approximately a 45 degree angle with the horizontal and comprising the rearmost portion of said drum.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein a peripheral rim is located about the rearmost end of said drum, an endless belt cooperatively located below and running in a direction generally parallel with said rim, a heating element located beneath said rim and belt and of a length less than that of said belt, and a cooling element located beneath said rim and belt and at a position beyond and not occupied by said heating element.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said heating element includes a channel for receiving the bottom end of said bag length and said rim and belt serve as a heat sink.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said cooling element comprises a pair of endless belts.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said means for filling comprises a hopper with a vertically disposed reciprocating chute extension.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means for separating comprises a reciprocating knife at least as long as the width of said tubular material, and a guide movable with said knife and located adjacent thereto to hold the severed end of a bag length in position both before and after severing.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein means for sealing the top end of said bag length after it is filled is located adjacent said hopper.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said securing elements are mounted about the periphery of a rotatable drum.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said securing elements are in the form of clamping heads and said drum is in the form of a truncated cone.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,086,335 4/1963 Frank 53l80 3,353,328 11/1967 Wheeler et a1. 5329 3,432,986 3/1969 Schneider et a1. 53l79 FOREIGN PATENTS 989,950 4/1965 Great Britain.

THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner E. F. DESMOND, Assistant Examiner 

